"We have been nice girls long enough. We’ve made our cholent…we should take to the streets." - Blu Greenberg

Monday, July 1, 2013

Musings on the Agunah Summit

A rally in Los Angeles pressuring a man
to give his wife a get.

Last Monday, I had the privilege
to attend the Agunah Summit. (You can find my notes on it here.) Co-sponsored
by The NYU Tikvah Center for Law and Jewish Civilization and the Jewish
Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA), it was a full day of programming dedicated
to resolving the agunah crisis. An agunah is a woman whose
husband refuses to give her a get (divorce papers), thereby chaining her
to a dead marriage and keeping her from going forward with her life. Considered
a human rights violation by CEDAW, agunah is clearly an immoral
manipulation of halakha (Jewish law) that must be ended immediately.

Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari,
director of the Ruth and EmanuelRackmanCenter
for the Advancement of the Status of Women at Bar-IlanUniversity,
presented horrifyingly high statistics of get abuse. According to
Halperin-Kaddari’s survey of 320 divorcing women in Israel, 1 in 3 were subject
to threats of get refusal, and 70% of women who had divorce settlements
to their disadvantage that deviates from normal laws were subject to get refusal.
It disgusts and shocks me that seemingly normal, upstanding men of the Jewish
community would participate in something as inhumane as get abuse, which
is a form of domestic violence.

My hope in mankind was restored when
I saw all of the men at the summit who were dedicated to ending the injustice
of agunah. It was really heartening to see that so many men care about
this issue, even though agunah usually only directly affects women. Agunot
have a lot of male allies, in the rabbinate as well as among the laypeople.

HarvardLawSchool professor Alan
Dershowitz’s keynote speech about the moral challenge that agunah presents
to halakhic Judaism was the most compelling presentation of the day. Professor
Dershowitz was brief, eloquent, articulate, and arguably the best speaker at
the summit. His dedication to ending agunah shows that you don’t have to
be a feminist activist to champion the cause; you simply have
to care about human rights.

As I am not a halakhic scholar
or full-time agunah activist, I was unable to fully understand a lot of the
halakhic solutions that were discussed at the summit. However, I didn’t
need to be a gemarakup (Talmudic genius) to understand that five
different resolutions for agunot, all of which have been employed by
reliable batei din (rabbinical courts), were presented.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, a prominent
Modern Orthodox rabbi and agunah advocate, said that he disagrees with Blu
Greenberg’s belief that “where there’s a rabbinic will, there’s a halakhic
way.” He does believe that “there is a rabbinic won’t,” as there are so many
viable halakhic techniques that could resolve agunot that are not
being utilized. Riskin believes they aren’t being used because dayanim (rabbinical
court judges) “are so wedded to their sefarim [religious books] that
they can’t see people suffering.” It frustrates me that there are agunot who
could be freed with relative ease, but are left chained by insensitive dayanim.
“The problem isn’t halakha, it’s the dayanim,” Riskin said.

As an action-oriented person in a
room full of my kind, it was a pleasure to see that everyone wanted to leave
the summit with practical resolutions for agunot. Susan Weiss, founder
of the Center for Women’s Justice, felt that the only surefire way to avoid agunah
is to avoid halakhic marriage. Most of the audience, me included, was
dismayed by her suggestion. It’s an unreasonable solution to propose,
especially considering that Joseph Weiler, director of the TikvahCenter,
stated that the summit would be built on the principle of “a commitment to halakhic
normativity.” The whole reason women become agunot is because of their desire
to receive a halakhically-sound get. Accordingly, we need to
figure out a halakhic way to help these women.

Rabbi Jeremy Stern, executive
director of ORA (Organization for the Resolution of Agunot), had a more realistic
solution to offer: a halakhic prenuptial agreement mandating the giving
of a get. “In the 400 cases I’ve worked on, I’ve never seen a couple with
a valid prenup where the get was not given in a timely manner,” he said.
“It’s been 100% effective.” As few couples actually sign prenups, it’s imperative to
encourage rabbinical organizations like the RCA and IRF to standardize a prenup
and forbid their members from officiating at weddings without them.

Rabbi Aryeh Klapper, dean of the
Center for Modern Torah Leadership, said that not only will he not officiate at
a wedding without a prenup, but he will not even attend a wedding without one.
“Laypeople have to do this too,” he urged. The audience and panelists were not
so receptive to his suggestion. Although I agree that it’s unfair to expect
people to boycott weddings without prenups, the idea deserves some credit. I
would never stay away from friends’ weddings just because they don’t have
prenups, but I plan on informing my newly-engaged friends about the importance
of prenups, and will do everything in my power to get them and their fiancés to
sign one. As Stern said, “friends don’t let friends get married without a halakhic
prenup.”

Throughout the
conference, several presenters discussed creating a special beit din
that would be sympathetic to agunot and strive to find solutions for
them. Although a beit din like this did exist in the past, it was not widely
accepted and disbanded years ago. Consequently, a new one - one whose
resolutions are considered kosher by most of the Orthodox community - could and
should be established. Rivka Haut, longtime agunah activist and founder
of Agunah Inc., was inspired by the possibility of this new beit din. “I’m
leaving here optimistic. I think there is a chance now for real change,” she
said. Haut, among many other activists and laypeople in attendance, urged the
rabbis in the room to create this beit din. Fortunately, many seemed
amenable.

Blu Greenberg,
mother of Orthodox feminism and founder of JOFA, closed the conference by reading
the laws that Moses commanded the Jewish people at the same time as divorce,
like helping a fallen neighbor, not delivering an escaped slave, and paying day
laborers on the same day they did their work. “The context is about protecting
the downtrodden,” Greenberg said. “Think of the Torah intent and God’s will as
you advocate for justice for agunot.”

About Me

Prayer for Agunot

Creator of heaven and earth, may it be Your will to free the captive wives of Israel when love and sanctity have fled the home, but their husbands bind them in the tatters of their ketubot. Remove the bitter burden from these agunot and soften the hearts of their misguided captors. Liberate Your faithful daughters from their anguish. Enable them to establish new homes and raise up children in peace.

Grant wisdom to the judges of Israel; teach them to recognize oppression and rule against it. Infuse our rabbis with the courage to use their power for good alone.